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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

When to Plant Fruit Trees

Q. When is a good time to plant fruit trees?

A. We normally plant fruit trees starting at the end of January and through February if they are bareroot. Bareroot are plants that are bought and planted without any soil around the roots. The roots must be well protected from drying out during shipment, while being held before planting and even as it is placed into the planting hole.

Container fruit trees can be planted well into early summer. They can struggle a lot if planted during the summer heat so it is not a good idea to do it then but it can be done. The next best time to plant container plants or even bare root is in the fall. Actually it is better than the spring but harder to find plants that you want because availability is limited.

Make sure your hole is dug prior to bringing the plant home and deep enough to accommodate the plant roots. It is more important to dig the hole wide than it is to dig it deep.

3 comments:

REALLY like your Gardening Column -- QUESTION on Christmas Cactus: It bloomed wonderfully--THEN, the old blooms fell off AND all of the new little buds all fell off too. WHAT HAPPENED???? Thanks a whole bunch.P.S. Are there other colors of this plant?? & will they all grow here in Boulder City Area???

there are three of these cacti that all look just about the same but they bloom at different times; Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter. The oddball of the group is the Easter cactus. Easter cactus is in a different genus than the other two and comes from the rain forest.Easter cactus requires a dry period to initiate flowering which simulates it's wet and dry seasons in the wild. Christmas and Thanksgiving cactus comes from higher elevations and so relies on cool temperatures and changes in day length to initiate flowering. Flower buds are usually dropped because of fluctuating wet and dry soils. Keep soils evenly moist as much as you can. Will they grow outside in Boulder city?it's worth a shot but I would keep them in containers using a double pot with the outside pot stuck in the ground to help regulate the temperature of the soil in the container. Keep it in the East or North exposure in filtered sunlight. Bring it inside if you hear of freezing temperatures approaching. Of the three, I would probably try Thanksgiving cactus first.

I forgot to add that you can usually find cultivars of Thanksgiving cactus in flower colors such as different shades of red, white, pink and orange.I found an interesting article for you to read at http://www.ag.auburn.edu/hort/landscape/Hcactus.htm

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This is my Desert Horticulture blog. Why? Because horticulture in the desert is much different than "wet" horticulture. After 30 years as a Desert Horticulturist I want to share what I learned. Please comment on your experiences so we can all learn from them. I do filter comments and as long as they are pertinent to the topic I will publish them.